<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Liberation by Wanderbird</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24432955">Liberation</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wanderbird/pseuds/Wanderbird'>Wanderbird</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Liberating Apatia, Other, POV Second Person, Undead</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 08:15:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>861</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24432955</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wanderbird/pseuds/Wanderbird</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In which you find Apatia, but it is already too late. </p>
<p>Takes place during the personal story segment Liberating Apatia, so uh definitely spoilers for that, those are some spoilers. *Please* heed the warnings, this is not gory but it is moderately graphic, and it's kind of (?) the player that does the killing<br/>Synopsis in the end notes if you need it</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Apatia &amp; Player Character (Guild Wars 2), Trahearne &amp; Player Character (Guild Wars)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Liberation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Trahearne had gone quiet from the moment you’d finally plunged that last arrow into the krait leader’s undead corpse.</p>
<p>Oh, he’d been helpful enough. Made sure the slaver wouldn’t come back from the dead again, pointed out vaguely where Apatia was being kept—but neither of these things boded well. He could sense her. You tried not to think about why.</p>
<p>Still, you were the first person to reach Apatia’s cage, and the warmth of battle drained from your face as soon as you saw her. Your heart—was that your heart?—pounded in your chest, your lungs heaved in a great gasp of breath.<br/>“Apatia?!” That was Explorer Hekja, your fellow Norn from the Priory. “Apatia, are you—” Finally, she understood what she was seeing. She must have, since the deathly silence after her words was broken only by the clatter of an armored body sitting down. “Oh.”<br/>The other two were much more quiet about their revelations, or in any case you didn’t notice if they said anything. Your eyes were still locked on your friend. <em>Your fault, </em>a thought surfaced through the fog. <em>You led her. She trusted you. You should have rescued her sooner, never should have left without her, you could have, should have seen this coming and now she’s—</em></p>
<p>“Commander.”</p>
<p>Trahearne did not put his hand on your shoulder. His voice was quiet and collected, and how could he sound so <em>calm </em>at a time like <em>this?! </em>Your eyes prickled in the wind, your skin trembled, your throat felt nearly too tight to speak.<br/><em>Apatia.<br/></em>There was water on your bloody, mud-streaked cheeks when you ran your hands over them, and jerked your mind to the conversation instead of watching the swaying of Apatia’s Risen corpse.</p>
<p>“Is she… aware?” The Crusader was wondering. For an instant then you hated her with a passion, for how distant she sounded. This was her comrade, once! Her sister-in-arms! And yet—<br/>“It doesn’t have to be the end.” Trust Agent Zrii to upstage even a walking lettuce for callousness. “Having an undead captive to study—especially one we knew well—could be a huge boon to the pact!”<br/>For once you were <em>glad </em>when Crusader Afanen interrupted, the tense discomfort finally audible in her voice. Grief, anger… only rarely had you seen a Sylvari angry, but she certainly was now. “Don’t be ridiculous. There’s nothing here we couldn’t get from any one of a thousand other undead. Apatia’s gone and we have to set her spirit free.”<br/>At last you managed to force words from your throat. “Crusader Afanen’s right. And—and when we’re done here, we travel to Hoelbrak to tell her legend to the skalds, so she’ll be remembered forever.” It was all you could think to say. What else could you do? Apatia was gone now, one more hero eaten alive by the dragons, her body desecrated as if she wasn’t even worth the snow she’d stood on. As if she were no more irritating than a fly. All because of you.</p>
<p>“That is the Norn way.” Trahearne’s voice brooked no argument. “Very well.” He slid between you and that swaying corpse, and those yellow eyes met yours in a promise. “Apatia admired you greatly, Commander, so you should be the one to put her to rest.”<br/><em>Cruel. </em>But no, he did not realize it. Or he did, and truly thought that it was best—it would certainly be proper, if nothing else, for you to tell the tale. And while it would be odd at best to bring her body home, some part of you balked at the thought of leaving it here in this slaughterhouse of a toxic lake. You nodded.</p>
<p>And then, moving as if in a dream, you stepped forward and around him. You broke the shoddy lock on the cage with a furious tug. Ducked inside the door. The thing that used to be Apatia made no move against you.<br/>“Apatia,” you whispered.</p>
<p>You sheathed your bow, and all your weapons, and took her rotting face in your hands to press a final kiss to that now-sagging forehead. <em>You should have died with highest honors, Apatia, delivering the killing blow to some great monster far in the future from now.</em> That is what you think.<em> Your body should have been left as it fell and burned after the battle, your spirit set free. It was never supposed to be here in a slaver’s pit. I never meant this to happen! You should not have had to scream and cry and wait alone, should never have been Risen. You should not still be moaning and swaying and cradled to my chest, days after the end. </em></p>
<p>You held her anyway.<br/>Her corpse did not hug you back.<br/>Your time was up, eventually. One hand stayed in that tangled hair, combing the filth out onto your fingers. The other… the other took your dagger in its grip. And as you held the body that used to be your friend, your dagger moved to Apatia’s neck. <em>I’m sorry, </em>you thought, and your stomach churned with the helplessness of it. You slit her throat.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Idk, that scene just... really stuck with me. Especially since I've been trying to take a more rp-focused approach to that character lately. So I wanted to put it into writing. I hope you... enjoyed? I hope it made you feel feelings? Idk.<br/>Have a nice day</p>
<p>Synopsis:<br/>Prior to this, Apatia was captured in a (successful) mission to steal an orb that protects against Risen from the krait, while the Commander left with the Orb. The next mission is to rescue her-- but when the Commander and company arrive, it is already too late, because Apatia has been turned into a Risen. The Commander instead has to put her body out of its misery and return to Hoelbrak to tell the story.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>